Posts Tagged ‘activism’

Yesterday, Rachel Maddow, host of MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” spoke to the Stanford community about her time as an undergraduate and about her new book “Drift.” Memorial Auditorium was packed, filled with students drawn by the chance to see one

You could almost miss the fact that the talked was sponsored in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Program in Ethics in Society. But Maddow and the people that introduced her, Professor Rob Reich and senior Jessica Asperger, gave us reminders that the focus of the talk was about ethics, about how the choices we make have consequences.

Maddow first introduced us to this subject by talking about her time at Stanford. Although she didn’t have any prior plans to complete a Public Policy major or honors thesis, they became steps towards completing her personal goals. After coming out and deciding to become an active member of a gay community she believed was being terminated by AIDS, Maddow said,”At age 17, I came out and thought my role was to fight.” She didn’t know what exactly she was going to do or how she was going to accomplish it but the program was one of her first steps down the long road that has allowed her to become one of America’s most thoughtful political commentators. (more…)

Have you ever met someone on campus that you were positive would change the world?

For myself and many others, Fadi Quran, Stanford ’10, is that person. He is an empathetic soul with a passionate and powerful voice and a very real commitment to justice. He’s also got a great sense of humor- he once made me laugh so hard that milk came out of my nose!

Which is why it’s especially hard to watch the following video of Fadi being pepper-sprayed, beaten, and arrested by Israeli police during a non-violent protest in Hebron on Friday:

The Stanford Daily and The Atlantic have reported that Fadi was being detained in an Israeli prison in Moscowbya awaiting a hearing. At the hearing Monday morning, the judge decided not to release him; instead, Fadi was moved to a prison in Ofer for another hearing the next day.

At Stanford, Fadi was an active promoter and participant of campus dialogue about Israel and Palestine. Since graduating, he has been a part of other non-violent activism such as the Freedom Riders (modeled after those of the US Civil Rights movement), in which he and five other Palestinians rode buses to demand the right to travel freely. The protest in Hebron which he took part in called for Shuhadda Street, a street in West Bank closed to Palestinians, to be reopened.

The petition for Fadi’s release currently has over 2100 signatures (including Noam Chomsky’s and several Stanford professors), and the Stanford Daily has had consistent coverage, but we need to do more. Check out www.freefadi.org, sign the petition, tweet #FreeFadi, share on Facebook and in person— spread the word.

I know that people see the words Israel or Palestine and decide that this is a political debate which will upset people… something so complicated that they shouldn’t even bother. But this is not about politics, it is not an attack, and it is not complicated. This is about a friend, a member of the Stanford community, an American citizen, a human being peacefully and non-violently standing up for what he believes in and being beaten and detained for it. In the words of one of Fadi’s own heroes and role models, Martin Luther King Jr., “True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.” Fadi’s detention is an injustice that stands in the way of true and lasting peace. Do something about it: join the coalition for his release.

Usually at the start of an event article such as this, I’d provide some background, some details on the event, maybe a few witticisms, and wrap up with some related resources. And I will. Just not yet, because that is not the point. If you take nothing else away from this article, give this sentence your full attention:

Sudan is at the precipice of civil war, and YOU can do something to prevent the next genocide.

TAKE ACTION.

A Sudanese child soldier: the very real human consequence of inaction in Sudan

Sign a petition at sudanactionnow.org: ask Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough (Obama’s point person inside the White House on Sudan) to “make sure Sudan’s leaders fully comply with the benchmarks for progress in both Darfur and South Sudan before any incentives are granted by the U.S. Government.”